Performance Indicator: Jobs, education and housing

Purpose

This indicator monitors the spatial aspects of Greater Sydney’s development, the places where jobs, education and housing are located. These are fundamental to understanding progress towards achieving the metropolis of three cities.

Goal

The goal is better alignment of jobs, education and housing opportunities across the three cities. For jobs and education this means improving access to these opportunities alongside population growth. For housing this means providing a diversity of housing types that respond to changing community preferences and needs at different life stages.

Measures

Job containment and distribution by type

Education participation

Housing types

The historical settlement pattern of the Greater Sydney Region has seen the concentration of jobs, economic activity and tertiary education institutions in the Eastern Harbour City, reinforced by the radial rail network. As the population grows rebalancing social and economic opportunities can leverage that growth and deliver benefits more equitably across Greater Sydney.

Within the next 40 years almost half of the population of Greater Sydney will live west of Parramatta1. Having three cities, each with supporting metropolitan and strategic centres will mean people live closer to jobs, city-shaping and city-serving infrastructure, entertainment and cultural facilities.

A greater distribution of housing types will provide greater choice as the community grows and people’s needs change. This is required to match local housing demand, changing demographics and the needs of the community at different life stages. These considerations also include a range of housing types, tenures and price points together with rental accommodation for lower income households and social housing for the most vulnerable2.

Measures

Distribution and types of jobs

Between 2006 and 2016 Greater Sydney’s total workforce increased from 1.6 million to 2.1 million. A further increase of 817,000 jobs is projected by 20363. However, this jobs growth has been uneven across the Region (see figure below). While 78 per cent of residents of the Eastern City District live and work within their district (referred to as job containment), this compares with 60 per cent in North District, 57 per cent in Western City District, 52 per cent in Central City District and only 43 per cent in South District.

Part of this need to travel is because 38 per cent of the 2.1 million jobs in Greater Sydney in 2016 were in the Eastern City District. As shown in the figure below, the North District contained 19 per cent of the Region’s jobs; Central City District 18 per cent; Western City District 15 per cent and the South District 10 per cent.

It is not just job locations but also the types of jobs in those locations that need to be considered. The figure below also shows the proportion of jobs in the knowledge and professional services sector (also referred to as knowledge jobs) is highest in the Eastern City District. By comparison, population serving jobs generally have an even distribution across the Region.

Education participation

Across Greater Sydney in 2016 more than half of all students were attending primary or secondary school, signalling future demand for tertiary education (university and technical and other vocational education and training, or TAFE) (see figure below). As a share of total student population, the proportion of local and international students attending university is highest in Eastern City District while the proportion attending TAFE is consistent across all districts.

Over the ten years to 2016, the number of students attending university across Greater Sydney increased by 64 per cent. This is due to a number of factors including the city’s increased population demand for tertiary institution places from local and international students.

Housing

Household types and dwelling types vary across the Region. In 2016, more than half the Region’s dwellings were separate houses (54 per cent), while 25 per cent were apartments and 21 per cent medium density dwellings (see figure below). The main household types were 36 per cent couples with children, 22 per cent couples with no children and 20 per cent lone person.

The Eastern City District has been, and continues to be, characterised by more apartments (49 per cent) and smaller households whereas the Western City District has more separate houses (80 per cent) and larger households. However our analysis is showing this gap is narrowing.

The proportion of apartments increased markedly across all districts in the decade to 2016 compared to the increase of separate houses and medium density. The largest increase was in the Central City District where the number of apartments grew by 75 per cent8.

In the same period (2006 to 2016), the largest proportional increases in household types across Greater Sydney were 29 per cent in group households, 18 per cent couples with children and 16 per cent couples with no children. In the Eastern City and Central City districts the largest proportional increase was in group households at around 40 per cent.

Research on housing market areas shows there is a preference for people to move and age within their local communities. Research also points to the growing housing affordability challenges across Greater Sydney.

Findings and future focus

The number of jobs and tertiary education opportunities are greatest in the Eastern City District while housing diversity is lower in the Western City and Central City districts.

An increase in jobs, particularly knowledge jobs, and tertiary education opportunities in the Western City and Central City districts is needed to address the current imbalance, particularly as the population of these districts is growing at a faster rate than other districts. Growing centres in these districts will assist in creating knowledge jobs which are largely concentrated in metropolitan and strategic centres, economic corridors and health and education precincts.

A greater understanding is needed of the demand for different housing types as the population grows and changes across all parts of Greater Sydney. Population projections in the Western City and Central City districts show an increase in the proportion of older people which will require a range of housing responses.

We also need to further develop how to best monitor and report on how housing supply is meeting the need for affordable housing. The Region Plan identifies housing affordability is a significant issue and Objective 11 sets out a program to introduce affordable rental housing targets. Following the development of a framework to deliver affordable rental housing, data will be collected to measure progress towards that target.

References

A Metropolis of Three Cities – Vision pp 6

A Metropolis of Three Cities - Housing the city pp 46

A Metropolis of Three Cities pp 80

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2016

Source: See Dashboard – Housing the city: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2006, 2016. STRD Dwelling Structure